John the Painter (1752–1777), also known as James Aitken or John Aitkin, was a Scot who committed acts of terror in British naval dockyards in 1776–77.
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Aitken was born in Edinburgh in 1752, the son of a whitesmith and the eighth of twelve children.[1]
The early death of his father assured him a good education at the charitable school of George Heriot’s Hospital, which was founded to care for the "puir, fitherless bairns" (Scots: poor, fatherless children) of Edinburgh.
Upon leaving school, he tried his hand at a variety of low-paying trades before finding that the world of criminal activity offered him more immediate rewards. He admitted in his testament to being a highwayman, burglar, shoplifter, robber, and (on at least one occasion) a rapist:
…I made the best of my way through Winchester to Basingstoke, intending to return to London. Going over a down near Basingstoke, I saw a girl watching some sheep, upon whom, with some threats and imprecations, I committed a rape, to my shame it be said.[2]
Fearful that his crimes would soon be detected, Aitken negotiated an indenture in exchange for a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia. He, of course, had no real intention of serving the terms of the indenture, and soon escaped to North Carolina. His next two years in the colonies were spent in such locales as Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Perth Amboy. It was during this period that he became exposed to revolutionary rhetoric, and Aitken claimed that he had been harassed by British troops for being a suspected Whig.[3] At some point after a 1775 return trip to England he developed his scheme of political arson.
Over the course of several months Aitken attacked facilities in Portsmouth and Bristol, creating the impression that a band of terrorists was on the loose in England.[1] The British dockyards, Aitken believed, were vulnerable to attack, and he was convinced that one highly motivated arsonist could cripple the Royal Navy by destroying ships in the harbours.[4] Aitken claimed to have the tacit approval of American diplomat Silas Deane in Paris for the scheme, but never received remuneration beyond a few pounds that Deane lent him.
British authorities hanged John the Painter on 10 March 1777 from the mizzenmast of a vessel in the Portsmouth dockyard (the highest gallows ever to be used in an execution in England), and some 20,000 people reportedly witnessed the execution.[5]
| Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about James Aitken. |